Mobile Broadband (MBB) based on High Speed Packet Access/Long Term Evolution (HSPA/LTE) and other mobile communication standards has taken off as an important technology for connecting User Equipments (UEs) like e.g. mobile Personal Computers (PCs) to the Internet. As Mobile Broadband (MBB) takes off new types of equipment appears on the market such as Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) solutions. In addition, the usage of broadband wireless adaptors so called “dongles” and built-in MBB capabilities for PCs and laptops is increasing heavily.
FWA is about providing an end user such as user equipment or PC with fixed line services by utilizing a wireless technology, e.g. Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), System Architecture Evolution/Long Term Evolution (SAE/LTE), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technologies. All FWA solutions comprise specific Fixed Wireless Terminals (FWT) that are also known as Mobile Broadband Routers (MBR). Fixed Wireless Terminals offer a cost efficient way to provide high speed data, voice and fax services to small office/home office and residential users. A FWT is a box that from the end user perspective can be compared with an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) modem. The FWT may also contain router functionality, Ethernet switch and WLAN functionality in order to give connectivity to several devices. However the FWT uses the mobile network (NW) for the backhaul and Internet connectivity instead of the fixed broadband.
To the mobile network, these devices, e.g. FWT and PCs with dongles appears as normal user equipments, even though they are more or less stationary and do not require the high degree of mobility a mobile network is designed for and provides. A dongle is a small piece of hardware that connects to a laptop or desktop computer. A dongle refers to a broadband wireless adaptor or in general to connectors that translate one type of port to another. Due to the increase number of FWT and PCs with dongles in the market, the data traffic generated by these equipments is increasing substantially in the mobile core network.
Almost all Wireless communications systems have data traffic access towards the public IP network via a few gateway nodes. For example in SAE/LTE system the gateway node is called Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN GW) and in a WCDMA system the gateway node is called Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). This configuration means that all user traffic needs to be handled and transported via the mobile core network, which puts constraint on the gateway node capacity.